With Martial Law dragging into its third year, General Ziaul Haq needed to show practical attempts to change the country’s political system. In the last week of August 1979, the General struck with two important changes to the law.
The first was of a very fundamental nature for political parties and their operations: through one amendment on Aug 30 to the Political Parties Act, 1962, all political parties were bound to get themselves registered with the Election Commission. Parties that displayed any “opposition to the Pakistan ideology” or were “working against the country’s integrity” were to be banned. No party could ridicule the armed forces either. Parties that did not fulfil these conditions would stand disqualified from the electoral process.
It also became mandatory for them to hold annual party elections and keep a record of their finances, including raising funds and their use. The amendment also decreed that parties that did not get registered or failed to show a record of finances would not be allowed to function as political parties. Parties receiving funds from abroad were to be banned altogether.
The second decision made by Gen Zia, one which he had been arguing for some time, was to hold local bodies elections in September on non-party basis, and before the general elections. The General announced that elected local representatives were to be armed with judicial powers, empowering them to decide disputes of various natures. At every instance, Gen Zia tried to quash notions that his local bodies system was merely a copy of General Ayub Khan’s Basic Democracy system.
An old dilemma for political parties once again: to participate in elections and legitimise a dictator, or to boycott and cede space
In response to the registration regulation, Pakistan National Alliance (PNA) chief Mufti Mahmood said on Sept 2 that political parties in the Alliance and outside had a unified stand: nobody agreed with it. The Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) held a meeting of its central committee on Sept 3, and said that the amendments to the Political Parties Act were biased. Maulana Noorani also opposed it, arguing that empowering the Election Commission with judicial powers was wrong.
Meanwhile, the now-reactivated Election Cell began welcoming political visitors again.
On Aug 11, 1979, Khwaja Khairuddin of the Muslim League-Chathha called on the Cell. Of his suggestions, the most critical one was that all factions of the Muslim League should be amalgamated and that Gen Zia should head the unified Muslim League. Khairuddin argued that in the presence of Pir Pagara, the various Muslim League factions would not unite.
The Muslim League-Chathha leader also communicated his fear to the Cell that holding elections on Nov 17 would lead the country towards more trouble. He claimed that the deteriorating law and order situation coupled with price hike had created a general need for change.
On Oct 21, Mian Akhtar Paganwala wrote to the Cell and suggested that there should be no elections till the economy was reinvigorated and reset.
Nonetheless, most leaders were in support of holding elections on Nov 17. Most parties and politicians, however, received the Aug 30 announcement as a hopeless measure. They argued that the new condition of registering political parties and submitting financial accounts in a short span of time was near impossible.
The PPP had already announced that it would participate in local bodies polls. For the sake of identifying their candidates among the candidates, the party called them the Awam Dost (panel).
The JI was pressed by two divergent views, but in its Sept 2 meeting, the party’s executive committee decided to take part in elections. The party resolved that if they boycotted polls, the vacuum created could be used by some unscrupulous elements. But since the JI was an active part of the PNA, its decision needed to be tied into the aims and aspirations of the Alliance.
The second decision made by Gen Zia, one which he had been arguing for some time, was to hold local bodies elections in September on non-party basis, and before the general elections.
The PNA decided on Sept 4 to boycott the local bodies polls, arguing that they were aimed at prolonging dictatorial rule. The JI revised its policy after PNA’s decision; on Sept 15, the Jamaat too announced a complete boycott of local bodies polls. Maulana Noorani’s Jamiat Ulema-i-Pakistan (JUP) and Asghar Khan’s Tehrik-i-Istaqlal (TI), however, stuck with their decision of participating in the polls process.
Amidst the turmoil, local bodies elections were held on Sept 25.
The polls were not without their skirmishes, disputes and clashes, with a number of deaths reported from across the country. Rigging complaints were received from all provinces too; rigging was rampant especially at women’s polling stations. In some city centres, polling needed to be suspended after rigging complaints.
The Election Commission announced on polling day that general elections would now be held on Nov 17, 1979. This infuriated Gen Zia; the very next day, he contradicted the report and said that the Nov 17 date was neither sacred nor set in stone.
After the polls, it was now time for all parties to get registered with the Election Commission.
While many parties opposed the registration process, some began preparing to comply. On Sept 3, the Home Department issued a notification saying that parties which were in existence on Aug 30 would have to present their accounts by Sept 18. On that day, some 44 political parties presented their accounts. These parties included PPP, Progressive People’s Party, Muslim League, JI, Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam, JUP, Tehrik Istaqlal, Pakistan Jamhoori Party, Markazi Jamiat Ahl-i-Hadis, Pakistan Minority Council and the Pakistan Shia political party.
After its Sept 3 decision to reject the proposed amendments to the Political Parties Act, the PNA met again in Islamabad on Sept 8 to reiterate its stand. On a day when Gen Zia had just returned from Havana, having attended a non-aligned countries conference, the PNA argued that if Gen Zia was inclined to take part in politics, he should resign as army chief and form his own political party.
Published in Dawn, Sunday Magazine, March 29th, 2015
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